Archive for December, 2009

A few weeks ago, a neighbor asked me and a dozen other friends and acquaintances to help him get a spot at the Tokyo Marathon. Participants are selected by lottery, he explained, and by drawing numbers for him we could ostensibly increase his chances of pounding the pavement next March.

The market has been following closely. Now Nike and Asics have flagship stores in the trendy Harajuku district, and one of Asics’ star designers has broken off to start his own line. According to Brett Larner of Japan Running News, all the major running shoe makers are opening specialty shops and starting their own running clubs. “Upper management-level people from two major brands told me that Japan is the only place in the world where the running market has continued to grow during the recession,” he says, adding that Runners Magazine just moved into new offices last month, due in part to the spike in interest. What’s more, he explains: “Non-running lifestyle and fashion magazines now regularly feature articles on running geared towards young, fashionable, independent women, the largest demographic within the current Japanese running boom.”

Mori Girl actually first appeared two years ago in a community on Mixi. Japan’s most popular social networking site also helped spawn a new subset this year. Meet the Swamp Girl (沼ガール, Numa Girl), a Mori mutation begging for attention and respect. Sick of being laughed at for their frilly, floaty, earthy fashions Numa Girls openly state that they embrace the Mori Girl look — for all the wrong reasons. Here’s an abridged version of the manifesto posted on the top page of the Numa Girl community on Mixi:

Japanese people are not known for airing their grievances in public, but a new project has arrived in Tokyo offering locals a new way to speak their mind. The Complaints Choir is the brainchild of Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen, a Finnish/German artist duo who conduct workshops and performances where the daily gripes of a city or society are written down and then sung with musical accompaniment.

The Complaints Choir concept has seen over 20 different incarnations around the globe since 2005. They recently hit Japan, and the final works can be seen in an exhibition at the Mori Museum running until February 2010. One of the most interesting aspects of the Complaints Choir is that it is comprised of ordinary people and is completely voluntary. “If we . . . make an open invitation, and if no one wants to take part, then that’s a clear indication that this project is not needed,” explained Kalleinen in an interview with Tokyo Art Beat.

Anyone can take part, she says, but no one is asked directly to ensure that only those who truly want to participate are involved. Complaints made in Japan varied from rude behavior on trains and eating habits to grooming issues.

This Christmas sees a couple of unique timepieces hit the shops. Depending on your temperament, you can choose to be woken by a cheerful disembodied head or a frog chorus. Personally I’d choose the frog chorus over the other rather sinister option. The Kero clock has two cute frogs who stand atop the digital display and sing you awake.

The prize for the weirdest clock goes to Clockman, from Takara Tomy, which has neither dials nor a digital display but instead a rubbery face that moves as he speaks. When you smack him on the head, Clockman will tell the time. In the morning he’ll wake you up by saying “De de de de de, it’s morning, wake up” (eek) and while you work will remind you of the time every 30 minutes or so, unless you tell him to shut up, upon which he’ll fall on his side and look peed off at you. If you ask him the time too much he’ll get annoyed at you and say, “Didn’t I just tell you a moment ago.”

Clockman has many moods (he’ll get grumpy if you do too much overtime) and he comes in a number of different personalities depending on his blood type. Personally, I think this clock would drive me up the wall, but I’d definitely consider giving to a frenemy.

Due to popular demand, Tokyo Midtown Design Hub’s third annual Prototype exhibition has been extended until Dec. 13. Prototype shows the work of Japanese creators – mostly architects, product designers and furniture designers – with a focus on the creative process and problems of turning an idea into an object. Each display has notes and sketches drawn directly onto the tables by the designers themselves, giving the viewer insight into their creative process. This makes the show fun for both die-hard design followers and those with only a passing interest. The finished products are beautiful, to be sure, but just as interesting are the scrawled diagrams, and in some cases, the tools used to make the new products on display.

From Dec. 3 visitors to Doutor coffee shop can get their mitts on limited-edition Cheburashka items unavailable elsewhere. Each week the free gift changes: in the first week free stickers are available, from Dec. 10 you can receive a clear A5 file and from the Dec. 17 customers get two free postcards. Stocks are limited so visitors to the store best get there early.

In addition you can buy a Cheburashka mug for ¥630, a Cheburashka original coffee set including mug, bag of drip coffee and tote bag for ¥1,800 and a 200-gram bag of premium mild blend coffee for ¥850.

It should be no surprise that despite being a Russian character, Cheburashka has connected with the Japanese and in early last month, a Japanese anime version of Cheburashka debuted on Japanese TV. Small childlike (chibi) characters with large heads such as Rilakkuma or Hello Kitty are extremely popular in Japan, so diminutive Cheburashka with his cute voice and giant bonce ticks all the right boxes for entry into Japan’s kawaii (cute) hall of fame.

Originally a character in a Russian storybook, Cheburashka became a popular Russian stop-motion animation in in the late ’60s. The furry homunculus has a number of comical friends such as Gena, a kind of gentleman crocodile, and an enemy called old lady Shapoklyak who plays pranks on him.

The original stop-motion animation first aired on Japanese television in 2006, and the ensuing popularity soon turned the original Russian Cheburashka products into must-have collectibles. This toy is now on sale on Yahoo Auctions for a hefty buy-it-now price of ¥55,000. As the Dotour campaign attests, the merchandising of Cheburashka is no doubt generating a mountains of rubles.

The copyright to the character has been fiercely debated in court between Eduard Uspenskiy, the writer of the original books, and Leonid Shvartsman, the art director of the animated films. Uspenskiy won a recent ruling in 2007. Given the proven money-making record of Hello Kitty, Shvartsman is no doubt feeling extremely put out right now.

Niwango, the company behind Nico Nico Douga, the hugely popular video site that displays user comments on the videos themselves, keeps rolling on. On Nov. 28 the company launched a service called Nico Nico Jikyou (translated as Nico Nico Commentary) that allows viewers to comment and view other users’ comments on TV content in real time.

At the moment it only works when you are viewing digital broadcasts on a PC, but soon, if you happen to own a ROBRO-TV, a new broadband TV manufactured by Doshisha Co. Ltd., Orion Electric Co. Ltd. and Kadenza Co., Ltd., you’ll be able to view the peanut gallery’s opinions from your couch.

The Nico Nico Jikyou service is currently being applied to nine channels in the Kanto region. It’s also possible to use the service from your mobile phone as well as from your PC.

A quick sampling of the Nico Nico Jikyou comments included one woman’s disgust with the new dark look of a pop star, praise for the music on a commercial and someone criticizing Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama for allegedly taking bribes.

We have to wonder what TV networks and their ad clients will have to say about this new visual feedback. Most likely as it grows in popularity, it will become difficult to ignore.

Naturally, the ability to create raw, unedited video feeds coupled with chatty interaction comes with ill side effects. On Nov. 28, Asiajin.com reported on the alleged suicide of a 24-year-old Japanese woman. The aftermath of her jump from a 4th-floor apartment was streamed on Stickam Japan, a subsidiary of the U.S.-based live video-sharing site, and the boards at 2Channel were buzzing with commentary shortly after.